Vocab 5

ambulatory: moving about or from place to place.

 

apse: a semicircular or polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used especially at the end of a choir in a church.

 

atrium: the main or central room of an ancient Roman house, open to the sky at the center and usually having a pool for the collection of rain water.

 

axial plan: the parts of a building are organized longitudinally.

 

basilica: a plan including a nave, two or four side aisles, a semicircular apse, a narthex, and often other features.

 

catacomb: an underground cemetery, especially one consisting of tunnels and rooms withrecesses dug out for coffins and tombs

 

central plan: the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center.

 

chalice: a cup for the wine of the Eucharist.

 

clerestory: a portion of an interior rising above adjacent rooftops and having windows admitting daylight to the interior.

 

coffer: one of a number of sunken panels, usually square oroctagonal, in a vault, ceiling, or soffit.

 

cubicula: a burial chamber. gospels: regarded as true and implicitly believed. loculi: a recess in an ancient catacomb or tomb where a body or cinerary urn was placed.

 

lunette: an area enframed by an arch or vault.

 

narthex: an enclosed passage between the main entrance and the nave of a church.

 

nave: principal longitudinal area of a church, extending from the main entrance or narthex to the chancel, usually flanked by aisles of less height and breadth.

 

orant figure: a figure in art with extended arms or bodily attitude of prayer.

 

spolia: used to describe the reuse of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments.

 

synagogue: an assembly or congregation of Jews for the purpose of religious worship.

 

Torah: the Pentateuch, being the first of the three Jewish divisions of the Old Testament.

 

transept: any major transverse part of the body of a church, usually crossing the nave, at right angles, at the entrance to the choir.

 

codex: a quire of manuscript pages held together by stitching; the earliest form of a book.

 

cathedral: the principal church of a diocese containing the bishop's throne.

 

icon: a representation of some sacred personage, as Christ or a saint or angel, painted on a wood surface and venerated as sacred.

 

iconostasis: a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separating the sanctuary from the main part of the church.

 

mosaic: a picture or decoration made of small, usually colored pieces of inlaid stone or glass.

 

psalter: the Biblical book of Psalms

 

pantocrator: a title of Christ represented as the ruler of the universe in Byzantine church decoration

 

squinch: a small archor corbeling built across the interior angle between two walls, as in a square tower for supporting the side of a superimposed octagonal spire.

 

pendentive: any of several spandrels, in the form of spherical triangles, forming a transition between the circular plan of a dome and the polygonal plan of the supporting masonry.

 

triptych: a hinged three-leaved tablet, written on, in ancient times, with a stylus.

 

animal style: art characterized by its emphasis on animal and bird motifs. cloisonne: enamel work in which colored areas are separated by thin metal bands fixed edgewise to the ground.

 

cloister: a covered walk, especially in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade opening onto a courtyard.

 

horror vacui: a dislike of leaving empty spaces in an artistic composition.

 

scriptorium: a room, as in a monastery, library, or other institution, where manuscripts are stored, read, or copied.

 

westwork: a monumental western front to a church, treated as a tower ortowers containing an entrance and vestibule below and a chapel above.